Education
Unpaid internships in London now cost more than £1,000 a month
Vital work experience is beyond the reach of young people from families on lower incomes
Sally Weale
Tue 30 Jan 2018 00.01 GMT
The cost of an unpaid internship in London has gone up to more than £1,000 a month, putting vital work experience beyond the reach of those from families on low and middle incomes, according to research. Inflation and increasing rents have pushed the cost of a one-month unpaid placement in the capital to a minimum of £1,019, meaning that a six-month internship with no pay would cost a person at least £6,114.
In Manchester, where housing costs are lower, a six-month unpaid placement would cost a minimum of £4,965 (based on £827 a month), pricing out many, analysis by the Sutton Trust social mobility charity has found.
Internships can help young people trying to break into competitive careers in politics, public relations, the arts, fashion and journalism, but they are often expected to work for nothing apart from travel expenses. There is also a lack of transparency, with placements sometimes awarded via informal networks rather than being openly advertised.
In the four years since the Sutton Trust last analysed the financial implications of internships, costs have increased significantly. In 2014 the cost was estimated at a minimum of £926 per month in London (£5,556 for six months) and £788 in Manchester (£4,728 for six months).
Though the report, titled Internships – Unpaid, Unadvertised, Unfair, acknowledges progress in some areas, some problems persist. Earlier this month a major fashion designer advertised online for an unpaid intern to work for two to three months ahead of London fashion week show. The hours were 9am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday and the role included design research, sampling and sourcing.
One MP advertised a six-month unpaid internship with only expenses covered, describing the role as 「ideal for someone looking to begin a career in politics, policy or the third sector」. Duties included research, analysis and briefing the MP on upcoming issues.
Frankie Leach, who is in her final year of a politics degree at Manchester Metropolitan University, was outraged when she was offered three months』 unpaid work at a PR company. She was told that because she lived a 20-minute bus ride away, she wouldn』t qualify for any paid expenses.
She had previously done a month’s unpaid internship with another company in London which was useful and affordable as she could stay with an aunt. But the three-month placement seemed to be a short-term job with no pay. 「I was shocked they thought it was an acceptable thing to do. It was like a job interview – it was really in-depth. They were asking me loads of questions.
「There’s definitely a class issue. Someone who has got parents that can afford to pay – they』re the people who can afford to do unpaid internships. But working-class people are cut off from internships because they don』t have enough money to work for free.」
Katie Bevan, a second-year politics student at Queen Mary University of London who is looking to work in radio, said she felt caught in a trap. 「It feels like a perpetual cycle of being unable to fund internships, but I fear that I won』t be able to get the experience necessary for my desired career without one, and so the stress continues.」
According to the Sutton Trust, around 70,000 internships are offered each year, and an estimated 10,000 graduates are in unpaid internships six months after graduation. Although minimum-wage legislation makes many unpaid internships illegal, the government recently admitted that there had been no recorded prosecutions.
Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said around four out of 10 young people who had done internships were unpaid. 「All internships over four weeks should be paid at least the minimum wage of £7.50 per hour. All internship positions should be advertised publicly. Large numbers of internships are never advertised and instead offered through informal networks. This practice locks out young people without connections.
「Also, the process by which potential candidates are selected for internships should uphold the same standards of recruitment as for other jobs.」
The trust is backing a bill by a Conservative peer, Chris Holmes, who is seeking to ban unpaid internships over four weeks in length.
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本文來源:https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/30/unpaid-internships-in-london-now-cost-more-than-1000-a-month